According to Barclays UK’s latest financial results, this is slightly down on the £166bn reported in the first quarter of last year.
The figure still represents the majority of its loans and advances, which came to £200.8bn in the first quarter, and consist of business banking, Barclaycard and personal loans. These fell 1% year-on-year due to “subdued mortgage lending and lower market demand”.
Another factor cited was “continued repayment of government scheme lending in business banking”.
Barclays UK’s profit before tax for the first quarter came to £705m, which is 6% down on the same period last year.
The firm also reported a credit impairment charge of £58m, which compares to £113m in Q1 last year.
Barclays UK said that this was “consistent with low delinquencies in UK cards, high quality mortgage lending portfolio and the improved macroeconomic outlook”.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays group chief executive, said: “In Q124, Barclays delivered a return on tangible equity [RoTE] of 12.3% as we progress towards our targets of >10% RoTE in 2024, and >12% in 2026.
“We are focused on disciplined execution of the plan that we presented at our Investor Update on 20th February. We have now announced the sale of our performing Italian mortgage book and are investing in our higher-returning UK consumer businesses, including through the expected completion of the Tesco Bank acquisition in Q424.
“We continue to exercise cost discipline and remain well-capitalised with a Common Equity Tier 1 [CET1] ratio at the end of the quarter of 13.5%.”
